Segment concatenation in radio link control status reports

ABSTRACT

A method of operating a receiver in a communications network includes receiving a protocol data unit, PDU, from a transmitter, wherein the PDU carries at least part of a service data unit, SDU, determining that first and second non-adjacent segments of the SDU were not successfully received at the receiver, and requesting retransmission by the transmitter of a portion of the SDU from a beginning of the first non-adjacent segment to an end of the second non-adjacent segment.

RELATED APPLICATION

The present application claims the benefit of and priority to U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 62/631,097, filed Feb. 15, 2018,entitled “SEGMENT CONCATENATION IN RADIO LINK CONTROL STATUS REPORTS,”the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference inits entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure is related to wireless communication systems andmore particularly to the generation of radio link control statusreports.

BACKGROUND

The New Radio (NR) Radio Link Control (RLC) specification defines theradio link control protocol. As defined in the specification, higherlayer service data units (SDUs) are encapsulated in protocol data units(PDUs) for transmission. Segmentation of the SDUs is performed if theSDU cannot fit into the transport block size for the transmission of thePDU. In acknowledged mode (AM), the receiver sends a status reportdescribing the reception status of the SDUs and SDU segments to thetransmitter. Based on the status report, the transmitter may performretransmission of SDUs or SDU segments. Re-segmentation may need to beapplied if an SDU segment needs to be retransmitted but does not fitinto the new transport block size for retransmission.

When a retransmission of an RLC SDU or RLC SDU segment is performed, theRLC SDU or RLC SDU segment that is being retransmitted is encapsulatedin an RLC PDU. In the RLC PDU, a header called the RLC header is addedto the data part. The RLC header includes a Sequence Number (SN) thatinforms the receiver of which SDU the data belongs to. In NR, theminimum header sizes are as follows:

-   -   1. 12-bit SN: 2 bytes fixed RLC header+2 bytes segmentation        offset+2 bytes MAC subheader=6 bytes.    -   2. 18-bit SN: 3 bytes fixed RLC header+2 bytes segmentation        offset+2 bytes MAC subheader=7 bytes.

When the PDU contains the first byte segment of the RLC SDU segment, thesegmentation offset bytes are not included.

Status Reporting

The RLC transmitter and the RLC receiver exchange information about thesent and received PDUs using status reports. A status report format isused to collect information about received and missing PDUs between RLCtransmitter and receiver entity. A status report may be triggered fordifferent reasons. One common reason to send a status report is when thereceiver receives an RLC header including a poll bit. The poll bit isset by RLC transmitter. When the receiver notices the poll bit in theRLC header, it will send an RLC status report to the transmitterdescribing the state of the receiver window to the transmitter entity.

SN Based Segmentation

In LTE, when an RLC SDU needs to be segmented to be transmitted, eachassociated RLC PDU (an RLC PDU contains part of the RLC SDU) which iscreated contains its own Sequence Number (SN). For NR, one RLC SDU hasonly one Sequence Number, so that segments associated with an RLC SDUhave the same sequence number. In segmentation, the SDU is split intothe segments and a segment offset (SO) field is used to indicate theposition of the segment within the original SDU. A segment information(SI) field indicates whether the associated PDU contains a first, middleor last segment of the SDU. The transmitter's segmentation function addsthis information into one more RLC PDU, and the receiver recreates theoriginal SDU based on the information received in the RLC PDUs.

Segmentation of an SDU into a plurality of PDUs is illustrated in FIG.1.

Upon expiration of a timer or when the RLC receiver receives a poll bit(e.g., a poll bit set to ‘1’), the RLC receiver creates a status reportthat includes information about already acknowledged and not yetacknowledged SDU(s) or SDU segments. The status report format isdescribed in 3GPP TS 38.322 V15.0.0 (2017-12). FIGS. 2A and 2Billustrate two examples of a status report format. In particular, a12-bit status report format is illustrated in FIG. 2A, and an 18-bitstatus report format is illustrated in FIG. 2B. As will be appreciated,“12-bit” and “18-bit” refer to the size of the NACK_SN field in thestatus report, which indicates the SN of the SDU that is the subject ofthe negative acknowledgement (NACK). Referring to FIGS. 2A and 2B, thefirst part of the status report (‘Static Part’) is static, i.e. it willbe always transmitted in status report. The other blocks in the statusreport are optional. The RLC receiver may decide which blocks to includein a status report format based on the rules specified in 3GPP TS38.322.

SUMMARY

A method of operating a receiver in a communications network includesreceiving (702) a protocol data unit, PDU, from a transmitter, whereinthe PDU carries at least part of a service data unit, SDU, determining(704) that first and second non-adjacent segments of the SDU were notsuccessfully received at the receiver, and requesting (706)retransmission by the transmitter of a portion of the SDU from abeginning of the first non-adjacent segment to an end of the secondnon-adjacent segment.

The portion of the SDU from the beginning of the first non-adjacentsegment to the end of the second non-adjacent segment may include athird segment that was successfully received at the receiver.

Requesting retransmission of the portion of the SDU from the beginningof the first non-adjacent segment to the end of the second non-adjacentsegment may include generating (802) a radio link control, RLC, statusreport, comprising a negative acknowledgement, NACK, field including asegment offset start indicator corresponding to a segment offset startof the first non-adjacent segment and a segment offset end indicatorcorresponding to a segment offset end of the second non-adjacentsegment, and transmitting (804) the RLC status report to thetransmitter.

The RLC status report may request retransmission of an entire portion ofthe SDU from the segment offset start indicator to the segment offsetend indicator.

Requesting retransmission of the portion of the SDU from the beginningof the first non-adjacent segment to the end of the second non-adjacentsegment may include generating (902) a radio link control, RLC, statusreport, comprising a negative acknowledgement, NACK, field including aNACK range that spans the first and second non-adjacent segments of theSDU were not successfully received at the receiver, and transmitting(904) the RLC status report to the transmitter.

The method may further include determining (1002) whether a condition ismet. Requesting retransmission by the transmitter of the entire portionof the SDU from the beginning of the first non-adjacent segment to theend of the second non-adjacent segment may be performed in response todetermining that the condition is met.

Determining whether the condition is met may include determining that anoverhead of a NACK tuple including a NACK sequence number, NACK_SN, asegment offset start, SOstart, corresponding to the second non-adjacentsegment of the SDU, and a segment offset end, SOend, corresponding tothe second non-adjacent segment of the SDU, is larger than anintervening portion of the SDU between the first non-adjacent segment ofthe SDU and the second non-adjacent segment of the SDU.

Determining whether the condition is met may include determining that astatus report format of a status report used to request retransmissionis limited by a transport block size.

Determining whether the condition is met may include determining that asize of a third segment between the first and second non-adjacentsegments of the SDU that was successfully received is less than athreshold size.

The threshold may be determined by comparing an SDU segment overheadwith an overhead associated with a radio link control, RLC, statusreport used to request the retransmission.

The threshold may be signaled to the receiver by the transmitter.

The method may further include determining that a size of a plurality ofthird segments between the first and second non-adjacent segments of theSDU that were successfully received is less than a threshold size.

The threshold size may be determined based on a distance between a firstmissing byte and a last missing byte in the SDU.

Some embodiments provide a user equipment, UE, (1500) adapted to performoperations of receiving (702) a protocol data unit, PDU, from atransmitter, wherein the PDU carries at least part of a service dataunit, SDU, determining (704) that first and second non-adjacent segmentsof the SDU were not successfully received at the receiver, andrequesting (706) retransmission by the transmitter of a portion of theSDU from a beginning of the first non-adjacent segment to an end of thesecond non-adjacent segment.

A user equipment, UE, (1500) according to some embodiments includes atransceiver (1501) configured to communicate with a first network nodevia a radio access network, and a processor (1503) coupled to thetransceiver (1501) and configured to perform operations includingreceiving (702) a protocol data unit, PDU, from a transmitter, whereinthe PDU carries at least part of a service data unit, SDU, determining(704) that first and second non-adjacent segments of the SDU were notsuccessfully received at the receiver, and requesting (706)retransmission by the transmitter of a portion of the SDU from abeginning of the first non-adjacent segment to an end of the secondnon-adjacent segment.

A user equipment, UE, (1500) according to some embodiment includesrespective modules adapted to perform operations of receiving (702) aprotocol data unit, PDU, from a transmitter, wherein the PDU carries atleast part of a service data unit, SDU, determining (704) that first andsecond non-adjacent segments of the SDU were not successfully receivedat the receiver, and requesting (706) retransmission by the transmitterof a portion of the SDU from a beginning of the first non-adjacentsegment to an end of the second non-adjacent segment.

A network node (1600) according to some embodiments is adapted toperform operations of receiving (702) a protocol data unit, PDU, from atransmitter, wherein the PDU carries at least part of a service dataunit, SDU, determining (704) that first and second non-adjacent segmentsof the SDU were not successfully received at the receiver, andrequesting (706) retransmission by the transmitter of a portion of theSDU from a beginning of the first non-adjacent segment to an end of thesecond non-adjacent segment.

A network node (1600) according to some embodiments includes a networkinterface (1607) configured to communicate with a UE, and a processor(1603) coupled to the network interface (1501) and configured to performoperations of receiving (702) a protocol data unit, PDU, from atransmitter, wherein the PDU carries at least part of a service dataunit, SDU, determining (704) that first and second non-adjacent segmentsof the SDU were not successfully received at the receiver, andrequesting (706) retransmission by the transmitter of a portion of theSDU from a beginning of the first non-adjacent segment to an end of thesecond non-adjacent segment.

A network node (1600) according to some embodiment includes respectivemodules adapted to perform operations of receiving (702) a protocol dataunit, PDU, from a transmitter, wherein the PDU carries at least part ofa service data unit, SDU, determining (704) that first and secondnon-adjacent segments of the SDU were not successfully received at thereceiver, and requesting (706) retransmission by the transmitter of aportion of the SDU from a beginning of the first non-adjacent segment toan end of the second non-adjacent segment.

A method of operating a receiver in a communications network accordingto further embodiments includes receiving (702) a protocol data unit,PDU, from a transmitter, wherein the PDU carries at least part of aservice data unit, SDU, determining (704) that first and secondnon-adjacent segments of the SDU were not successfully received at thereceiver, generating (802) a radio link control, RLC, status report,comprising a negative acknowledgement, NACK, field with respect to a setof segments including the first and second non-adjacent segments and asegment in-between the first and second non-adjacent segments, andtransmitting (804) the RLC status report to the transmitter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a furtherunderstanding of the inventive concepts and are incorporated in andconstitute a part of this application, illustrate certain embodiment(s)of the inventive concepts. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 illustrates segmentation of an SDU into a plurality of PDUs.

FIGS. 2A and 2B illustrate examples of status report formats.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of missing PDUs at a receiver.

FIG. 4A illustrates an example of a conventional status report thatreports multiple missing data segments.

FIG. 4B illustrates an example of a status report that reports multiplemissing data segments according to some embodiments.

FIGS. 5, 6A and 6B illustrate concatenation using the NACK_RANGE fieldaccording to some embodiments.

FIGS. 7, 8, 9 and 10 illustrate operations according to variousembodiments.

FIG. 11 illustrates a user equipment according to some embodiments.

FIG. 12 illustrates a network node according to some embodiments.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of a wireless network in accordance with someembodiments.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram of a user equipment in accordance with someembodiments.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram of a virtualization environment in accordancewith some embodiments.

FIG. 16 is a block diagram of a telecommunication network connected viaan intermediate network to a host computer in accordance with someembodiments.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram of a host computer communicating via a basestation with a user equipment over a partially wireless connection inaccordance with some embodiments.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

A problem that can arise is that it the overhead required to generate astatus report may in some cases be large. It is currently unclearwhether status report blocks can be concatenated to save overhead.

In addition, when a full status report format does not fit into atransport block, the status report must be truncated, which may increaselatency of the receiver to be able to indicate the missing bytes andother missing SNs until, for example, when the next transportopportunity arrives.

Moreover, when using a NR TDD leg in a mostly downlink-only slotpattern, the ability to send RLC status feedback in the uplink on the NRLeg may be constrained.

Some embodiments of the present disclosure provide systems and/ormethods by which, when non-consecutive byte segments for an SDU aremissing, the receiver may decide to save overhead and/or decreaselatency by concatenating the NACKed segment information.

In addition, in the case where the transport block size is not largeenough to carry the whole status report format, the receiver maycompress the status report format to fit into the transport block byconcatenating the NACKed segment information.

Potential advantages that can be provided by one or more of theembodiments disclosed herein can include any one or more of overheadsavings, latency reduction and/or faster feedback between the RLCtransmitter and receiver.

In many cases, it may be useful to keep the status report (which is sentin the uplink) small. For instance, given that an NR TDD carrier fornon-standalone deployment will typically be downlink-slot heavy and mostuplink traffic carried over LTE, then it may be important for an RLCentity that is constrained by the uplink grant size (i.e., the UL PDUsize) to reduce the STATUS PDU header overhead and maximize the numberof missing sequence numbers it can report to speed up the feedback tothe transmitter, even if it means some byte segments for a partiallyreceived SN are retransmitted.

The present inventive concepts are described within the context of 3GPPNR radio technology. However, it should be understood that the problemsand solutions described herein are equally applicable to wireless accessnetworks and user-equipments (UEs) implementing other accesstechnologies and standards. NR is used as an example technology wherethe inventive concepts are suitable, and using NR in the descriptiontherefore is particularly useful for understanding the problem andsolutions solving the problem. In particular, the invention isapplicable also to 3GPP LTE, or 3GPP LTE and NR integration, alsodenoted as non-standalone NR, or EN-DC (EUTRA-NR dual connectivity).

Some example embodiments enable a UE to reduce the size of an RLC statusreport by concatenating missed segments in the report into a singleNACK.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example scenario in which the receiver fails tosuccessfully receive one or more PDUs, with the result that somesegments of an SDU are missing at the receiver.

In particular, in the example shown in FIG. 3, two SDUs are transmittedfrom a transmitter to a receiver in a plurality of PDUs. In the firstSDU (i.e., the SDU with SN=X), data at segment offsets (SOs) A to C, Dto E F to G, and H to I are not successfully received by the receiver.In the second SDU (i.e., the SDU with SN=Y), data at SOs J to K are notsuccessfully received by the receiver. A conventional way to report thissituation to the transmitter is to send an RLC status report formattedas illustrated in FIG. 4A. In the format shown in FIG. 4A, each missingsegment is identified by a separate NACK field including the sequencenumber associated with the NACK (NACK_SN), a segment offset start(SOstart) field and a segment offset end (SOend) field. Thus, the reportshown in FIG. 4A includes five separate NACK fields.

The status report format illustrated in FIG. 4A creates overhead byalways indicating the NACK_SN plus 4 bytes of SO information per missingsegment byte segment.

According to current specification, if the status report is truncateddue to transport block size limitations, the receiver may not includethe NACK associated with NACK_SN=Y on the status report. This may causea problem when the receiver reports missing segments from the SDU withSN=X but never reports missing segments from the SDU with SN=Y. Thiswill result that the receiver must wait yet another round of statusreporting to report the missing segments from the SDU with SN=Y.

In order to reduce the overhead associated with the RLC status reportand/or to fit the status report into a transport block, a receiveraccording to some embodiments may be allowed to concatenate multiplenon-adjacent NACKed segments into a single NACK field, even if one ormore segments between the non-adjacent NACKed segments were successfullyreceived by the receiver. FIG. 4B illustrates an RLC status reportaccording to some embodiments in which the receiver concatenates thereport for the segments starting at SOstart=A and ending at SOend=I (or0xFFFF, indicating the last bit of the SDU) in the SDU with SN=X eventhough the segments at offsets C to D, E to F and G to H were receivedsuccessfully (see FIG. 3). This concatenation of segments (or, inalternate terminology, collapsing of segments) into a single NACK field,may significantly shorten the length of the RLC status report.

According to some embodiments, when the RLC receiver constructs theSTATUS PDU, if the RLC SDU has non-adjacent byte segments missing, andthe gap between SOend of one or more missing segment and the SOstart ofthe next missing segment for the same SN is small compared to headeroverhead that would otherwise be incurred by the status report, the RLCreceiver may collapse/concatenate the missing segments into a singletuple that indicates the SOstart offset of the beginning of the firstnon-adjacent missing segment and the SOend offset of the secondnon-adjacent missing segment.

In the example illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4B, the successfully receivedPDUs 4 and 6 are also collapsed. Accordingly, the receiver requestsretransmission of one or more segments that were successfully receivedalong with at least two non-adjacent segments that were not successfullyreceived. The collapsing of the already received SDU segments ispossible because all of the segments associated with the same SDU havethe same SN. Therefore, the receiver/transmitter window may only bemoved when a full SDU is acknowledged.

Collapsing/concatenation of segments as described above may be performedin some cases when a predefined condition is met. For example,collapsing/concatenation may be performed:

1. When overhead of the NACK tuple (e.g. NACK_SN+SOstart+SOend) isgreater than the overhead of sending the payload over the air.

2. When the status report format is limited by transport block size andtherefore, it would increase retransmission latency if the RLC STATUSreport were to be split into two (or more) parts.

3. When the UE is configured to reduce/minimize the over the airoverhead caused by RLC Status reporting.

4. When there is a transport block size limitation and the status reportdoes not fit into transport block.

5. When the size of an SDU segment is smaller than a configuredthreshold that it causes for the status report.

The threshold may be calculated as follows:

1. The threshold may be calculated by comparing the SDU segment overheadwith the overhead caused by segments on status report.

2. The threshold may be set to reduce/minimize the overall overheadcaused by the RLC status report (e.g. when constrained device iscommunicating with a gNB).

3. The threshold may be configured by a gNB via RRC signalling towards aUE.

4. The threshold may be specified by a formula.

5. The threshold may be configurable by the transmitter and take intoaccount the header overhead caused by the receiver to the transmitter asa result of sending a status report containing non-consecutive segmentsover the air.

The threshold may, for example, be associated with the consecutive SDUsegment size. When the size of consecutive SDU segments exceeds anexplicitly defined threshold, then the receiver would not include thesegments individually, but would concatenate segments in status reportblock.

NACK_RANGE

The 3GPP TS 38.322 V15.0.0 (2017-12) specifies the following:

6.2.3.15 SO end (SOend) field Length: 16 bits. When E3 is 0, the SOendfield (together with the SOstart field) indicates the portion of the RLCSDU with SN = NACK_SN (the NACK_SN for which the SOend is related to)that has been detected as lost at the receiving side of the AM RLCentity. Specifically, the SOend field indicates the position of the lastbyte of the portion of the RLC SDU in bytes within the original RLC SDU.The first byte of the original RLC SDU is referred by the SOend fieldvalue “0000000000000000”, i.e., numbering starts at zero. The specialSOend value “1111111111111111” is used to indicate that the missingportion of the RLC SDU includes all bytes to the last byte of the RLCSDU. When E3 is 1, the SOend field indicates the portion of the RLC SDUwith SN = NACK_SN + NACK range-1 that has been detected as lost at thereceiving side of the AM RLC entity. Specifically, the SOend fieldindicates the position of the last byte of the portion of the RLC SDU inbytes within the original RLC SDU. The first byte of the original RLCSDU is referred by the SOend field value “0000000000000000”, i.e.,numbering starts at zero. The special SOend value “1111111111111111” isused to indicate that the missing portion of the RLC SDU includes allbytes to the last byte of the RLC SDU.

FIGS. 5, 6A and 6B illustrate concatenation using the NACK_RANGE fieldaccording to some embodiments. According to the specification,NACK_RANGE can be used by a receiver to report a range of SNs that werenot successfully received. For instance, in a case where multiple SNsare reported missing with NACK_RANGE, there may be a case where it ispossible to report segments missing with the status report, shown inFIGS. 6A and 6B.

In the case where the SO pair (SOstart+SOend) is associated with theNACK_RANGE and the size of one PDU payload is insignificant whencompared to payload requested. For example, the receiver receives PDU Xand X+N where SN X>N and X and N are SDU segments. The receiver usesNACK_RANGE to indicate the missing range, but based on a condition onoverhead or TB size, it may decide not to include SO_Start and SOendwith NACK_Range.

It could also be defined as distance of first missing byte of the SDU tothe last missing byte of the SDU. If distance in bytes>Threshold, thenconcatenation occurs.

Alternatively, for example, if (SDU_Size/segment distance)>threshold,then the FULL SDU is requested in Status Report. This could also takeinto account the number of non-consecutive byte segments (i.e. “Gaps”)in the SDU.

Operations of a receiver according to some embodiments are illustratedin FIG. 7. As shown therein, the operations include receiving (702) aprotocol data unit, PDU, from a transmitter, wherein the PDU carries atleast a portion of at least one service data unit, SDU, determining(704) that first and second non-adjacent segments of the at least oneSDU were not successfully received at the receiver, and requesting (706)retransmission by the transmitter of a portion of the at least one SDUfrom a beginning of the first non-adjacent segment to an end of thesecond non-adjacent segment.

The portion of the at least one SDU from the beginning of the firstnon-adjacent segment to the end of the second non-adjacent segment mayincludes a third segment that was successfully received at the receiver.

Referring to FIG. 8, requesting retransmission of the portion of the atleast one SDU from the beginning of the first non-adjacent segment tothe end of the second non-adjacent segment may include generating (802)a radio link control, RLC, status report, comprising a negativeacknowledgement, NACK, field including a segment offset start indicatorcorresponding to a segment offset start of the first non-adjacentsegment and a segment offset end indicator corresponding to a segmentoffset end of the second non-adjacent segment; and transmitting (804)the RLC status report to the transmitter.

The RLC status report may request retransmission of an entire portion ofthe at least one SDU from the segment offset start indicator to thesegment offset end indicator.

Referring to FIG. 9, requesting retransmission of the portion of the atleast one SDU from the beginning of the first non-adjacent segment tothe end of the second non-adjacent segment may include generating (902)a radio link control, RLC, status report, comprising a negativeacknowledgement, NACK, field including a NACK range that spans the firstand second non-adjacent segments of the at least one SDU were notsuccessfully received at the receiver; and transmitting (904) the RLCstatus report to the transmitter.

Referring to FIG. 10, the method may further include determining (1002)whether a condition is met. Requesting retransmission by the transmitterof the entire portion of the at least one SDU from the beginning of thefirst non-adjacent segment to the end of the second non-adjacent segmentmay be performed in response to determining that the condition is met.

Determining whether the condition is met may include determining that anoverhead of a NACK tuple including a NACK sequence number, NACK_SN, asegment offset start, SOstart, corresponding to the second non-adjacentsegment of the at least one SDU, and a segment offset end, SOend,corresponding to the second non-adjacent segment of the at least oneSDU, is larger than an intervening portion of the at least one SDUbetween the first non-adjacent segment of the at least one SDU and thesecond non-adjacent segment of the at least one SDU.

Determining whether the condition is met may include determining that astatus report format of a status report used to request retransmissionis limited by a transport block size.

Determining whether the condition is met may include determining that asize of a third segment between the first and second non-adjacentsegments of the at least one SDU that was successfully received is lessthan a threshold size.

The threshold may be determined by comparing an SDU segment overheadwith an overhead associated with a radio link control, RLC, statusreport used to request the retransmission.

The threshold may be signaled to the receiver by the transmitter.

The method may further include determining that a size of a plurality ofthird segments between the first and second non-adjacent segments of theat least one SDU that were successfully received is less than athreshold size.

Examples of concatenation of NACK segments according to some embodimentswill now be described.

Example 1

Assume an RLC receiver is missing byte segments 10-20 and 1020-1100 of a1500 byte SDU with SN=x.

Normally, the receiver would send a status report with 2 NACK tuples:(NackSn=x, SoStart=10, SoEnd=20, E2=1, E3=0), (NackSn=x, SoStart=1020,SoEnd=1100).

In this case, since the gap between first missing SDU segment and secondmissing SDU segment is 1000 bytes is large compared to header overheadssaved, concatenation of the 2 NACK tuples to 1 NACK tuple (NackSn=x,SoStart=10, SoEnd=1100) would not be advisable.

Example 2

Assume an RLC receiver is missing byte segments 10-20 and 25-34 and50-80 of a 100 byte SDU with SN=x.

Normally, the receiver would send a status report with 3 NACK tuples:(NackSn=x, SoStart=10, SoEnd=20), (NackSn=x, SoStart=25, SoEnd=34),(NackSn=x, SoStart=50, SoEnd=80).

However, in this example, the status PDU header overhead of sending 3NACK tuples with SoStart/SoEnd fields with 18-bit SN is 3 NACKs×7bytes=21 bytes.

In this case, concatenating NACKs in the status report to form a singleNACK=x and SoStart/SoEnd=(10,80) would save 14 bytes in the size of theStatus PDU and might allow reporting of NACKs for other SNs thatotherwise might not have been possible if truncation was required due toTB size limit.

Furthermore, asking the transmitter to retransmit 11+10+30=51 bytes ifjust requesting retransmission of the 3 segments actually missing vs.requesting retransmission of offset 10−80=71 bytes may not besignificant given DL resources available.

For the transmitter to actually transmit 3 RLC PDUs containing the datarequested in 3 NACKs would include additional MAC/RLC header overhead atthe transmitter for each RLC PDU.

However, just looking from the receiver's perspective, requestingretransmission of 51 bytes of a SDU in three non-adjacent segments withstatus PDU overhead of 21 bytes vs retransmission of 71 SDU bytes withstatus PDU header overhead of 7 bytes for 1 NACK may be desirable.

Conditions for Concatenation:

a) If STATUS PDU needs truncation due to TB size constraints, thenconcatenation of NACKs should be considered to allow reporting of moreNACK SNs.

b) If the distance between non-adjacent missing byte segments atreceiver is smaller than 8 bytes, then concatenating 2 NACKs to 1 NACKmay save header overhead both in STATUS PDU and save processing andheader overhead at the RLC transmitter.

c) If the sum of all the missing bytes in K consecutive but non-adjacentmissing SDU segments for the same RLC SN is more than x % compared tothe distance between the first missing byte and the last missing byte inthe same K missing SDU segments, then concatenation of the STATUS may bepreferable. The threshold percentage (x %) could be configurable (eg.70%)

Example Elements of UE and Network Node

FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating elements of a UE 1500 (alsoreferred to as a wireless terminal, a mobile equipment (ME), a wirelesscommunication device, a wireless communication terminal, user equipment,a user equipment node/terminal/device, etc.) configured to operateaccording to embodiments disclosed herein. As shown, the UE 1500 mayinclude at least one antenna 1507 (also referred to as antenna), and atleast one transceiver circuit 1501 (also referred to as transceiver)including a transmitter and a receiver configured to provide uplink anddownlink radio communications with a base station or other radiotransceiver element of a radio access network. The UE 1500 may alsoinclude at least one processor circuit 1503 (also referred to asprocessor) coupled to the transceiver 1501, and at least one memorycircuit 1505 (also referred to as memory) coupled to the processor 1503.The memory 1505 may include computer readable program code that whenexecuted by the processor 1503 causes the processor 1503 to performoperations according to embodiments disclosed herein for a UE. Accordingto other embodiments, processor 1503 may be defined to include memory sothat a separate memory circuit is not required. The UE 1500 may alsoinclude an interface (such as a user interface) coupled with processor1503.

As discussed herein, operations of the UE 1500 may be performed byprocessor 1503 and/or transceiver 1501. Alternatively, or additionally,the UE 1500 may include modules, e.g., software and/or circuitry, thatperforms respective operations (e.g., operations discussed herein withrespect to example embodiments of UEs).

FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating elements of a network node 1600according to one or more embodiments disclosed herein. As shown, thenetwork node 1600 may include at least one network interface circuit1607 (also referred to as a network interface) configured to providecommunications with other network nodes, such as one or more nodes of anaccess network, a core network, and/or another system node. The networknode 1600 may also include at least one processor circuit 1603 (alsoreferred to as a processor) coupled to the network interface 1607, andat least one memory circuit 1605 (also referred to as memory) coupled tothe processor 1603. The memory 1605 may include computer readableprogram code that when executed by the processor 1603 causes theprocessor 1603 to perform operations according to embodiments disclosedherein for a network node, such as a gNB, an AMF/SEAF, an AUSF and/or aUDM/SIDF as described above. According to other embodiments, processor1603 may be defined to include memory so that a separate memory circuitis not required.

As discussed herein, operations of the network node 1600 may beperformed by processor 1603 and/or network interface 1607. For example,processor 1603 may control network interface 1607 to send communicationsthrough network interface 1607 to one or more other network nodes and/orother system nodes, and/or to receive communications through networkinterface 1607 from one or more other network nodes and/or other systemnodes. Alternatively, or additionally, the network node 1600 may includemodules, e.g., circuitry, that performs respective operations (e.g.,operations discussed herein with respect to example embodiments ofnetwork nodes).

In some embodiments, some or all of the operations described herein maybe implemented as virtual components executed by one or more virtualmachines implemented in one or more virtual environments hosted by oneor more of network nodes. Further, in embodiments in which the virtualnode is not a radio access node or does not require radio connectivity(e.g., a core network node), then the network node may be entirelyvirtualized.

The operations may be implemented by one or more applications (which mayalternatively be called software instances, virtual appliances, networkfunctions, virtual nodes, virtual network functions, etc.) operative toimplement some of the features, functions, and/or benefits of some ofthe embodiments disclosed herein. Applications are run in avirtualization environment which provides hardware comprising processingcircuitry and memory. Memory contains instructions executable byprocessing circuitry whereby application is operative to provide one ormore of the features, benefits, and/or functions disclosed herein.

Abbreviations

At least some of the following abbreviations may be used in thisdisclosure. If there is an inconsistency between abbreviations,preference should be given to how it is used above. If listed multipletimes below, the first listing should be preferred over any subsequentlisting(s).

-   1×RTT CDMA2000 1× Radio Transmission Technology-   3GPP 3rd Generation Partnership Project-   5G 5th Generation-   ABS Almost Blank Subframe-   AKA Authentication and Key Agreement protocol-   AMF Access and Mobility management Function-   AN Access Network-   ARQ Automatic Repeat Request-   AUSF Authentication Server Function-   AWGN Additive White Gaussian Noise-   BCCH Broadcast Control Channel-   BCH Broadcast Channel-   CA Carrier Aggregation-   CC Carrier Component-   CCCH SDU Common Control Channel SDU-   CDMA Code Division Multiplexing Access-   CGI Cell Global Identifier-   CIR Channel Impulse Response-   CN Core Network-   CP Cyclic Prefix-   CPICH Common Pilot Channel-   CPICH Ec/No CPICH Received energy per chip divided by the power    density in the band-   CQI Channel Quality information-   C-RNTI Cell RNTI-   CRS Cell-specific Reference Signal-   CSI Channel State Information-   DCCH Dedicated Control Channel-   DL Downlink-   DM Demodulation-   DMRS Demodulation Reference Signal-   DRX Discontinuous Reception-   DTX Discontinuous Transmission-   DTCH Dedicated Traffic Channel-   DUT Device Under Test-   EAP Extensible Authentication Protocol-   E-CID Enhanced Cell-ID (positioning method)-   ECIES Elliptic Curve Integrated Encryption Scheme-   E-SMLC Evolved-Serving Mobile Location Centre-   ECGI Evolved CGI-   eNB E-UTRAN NodeB-   ePDCCH enhanced Physical Downlink Control Channel-   E-SMLC evolved Serving Mobile Location Center-   E-UTRA Evolved UTRA-   E-UTRAN Evolved UTRAN-   FDD Frequency Division Duplex-   FFS For Further Study-   GERAN GSM EDGE Radio Access Network-   gNB Base station in NR-   GNSS Global Navigation Satellite System-   GSM Global System for Mobile communication-   HARQ Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request-   HO Handover-   HPLMN Home PLMN-   HSPA High Speed Packet Access-   HRPD High Rate Packet Data-   LOS Line of Sight-   LPP LTE Positioning Protocol-   LTE Long-Term Evolution-   MAC Medium Access Control-   MBMS Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services-   MBSFN Multimedia Broadcast multicast service Single Frequency    Network-   MBSFN ABS MBSFN Almost Blank Subframe-   MDT Minimization of Drive Tests-   MIB Master Information Block-   MITM Man In The Middle-   MME Mobility Management Entity-   MSC Mobile Switching Center-   NAS Non-Access Stratum-   NPDCCH Narrowband Physical Downlink Control Channel-   NPBCH Narrowband Physical Broadcast CHannel-   NPDSCH Narrowband Physical Downlink Shared CHannel-   NPRACH Narrowband Physical Random Access CHannel-   NPUSCH Narrowband Physical Uplink Shared CHannel-   NR New Radio-   NSA Non-standalone-   OCNG OFDMA Channel Noise Generator-   OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing-   OFDMA Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access-   OSS Operations Support System-   OTDOA Observed Time Difference of Arrival-   O&M Operation and Maintenance-   PBCH Physical Broadcast Channel-   P-CCPCH Primary Common Control Physical Channel-   PCell Primary Cell-   PCFICH Physical Control Format Indicator Channel-   PDCCH Physical Downlink Control Channel-   PDP Profile Delay Profile-   PDSCH Physical Downlink Shared Channel-   PGW Packet Gateway-   PHICH Physical Hybrid-ARQ Indicator Channel-   PLMN Public Land Mobile Network-   PMI Precoder Matrix Indicator-   PRACH Physical Random Access Channel-   PRS Positioning Reference Signal-   PSS Primary Synchronization Signal-   PUCCH Physical Uplink Control Channel-   PUSCH Physical Uplink Shared Channel-   RACH Random Access Channel-   QAM Quadrature Amplitude Modulation-   RAN Radio Access Network-   RAT Radio Access Technology-   RLM Radio Link Management-   RNC Radio Network Controller-   RNTI Radio Network Temporary Identifier-   RRC Radio Resource Control-   RRM Radio Resource Management-   RS Reference Signal-   RSCP Received Signal Code Power-   RSRP Reference Symbol Received Power OR Reference Signal Received    Power-   RSRQ Reference Signal Received Quality OR Reference Symbol Received    Quality-   RSSI Received Signal Strength Indicator-   RSTD Reference Signal Time Difference-   SCH Synchronization Channel-   SCell Secondary Cell-   SDU Service Data Unit-   SEAF Security Anchor Function-   SFN System Frame Number-   SGW Serving Gateway-   SI System Information-   SIB System Information Block-   SMC Security Mode Command-   SNR Signal to Noise Ratio-   SON Self Optimized Network-   SPDCCH Short Physical Downlink Control Channel-   SPDSCH Short Physical Downlink Shared Channel-   SPUCCH Short Physical Uplink Control Channel-   SPUSCH Short Physical Uplink Shared Channel-   SS Synchronization Signal-   SSS Secondary Synchronization Signal-   SUCI Subscription Concealed Identifier-   SUPI Subscription Permanent Identifier-   TDD Time Division Duplex-   TDOA Time Difference of Arrival-   TOA Time of Arrival-   TSS Tertiary Synchronization Signal-   TTI Transmission Time Interval-   UE User Equipment-   UICC Universal Integrated Circuit Card-   UL Uplink-   UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunication System-   USIM Universal Subscriber Identity Module-   UTDOA Uplink Time Difference of Arrival-   UTRA Universal Terrestrial Radio Access-   UTRAN Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network-   VPLMN Visited PLMN-   WCDMA Wide CDMA-   WLAN Wide Local Area Network-   ACK Acknowledgment-   AM Acknowledged Mode-   AMD AM Data-   CPT Control PDU Type-   D/C Data/Control (field)-   DL DownLink-   E Extension bit (field)-   E-bit Extension bit-   eNB E-UTRAN Node B-   E-UTRA Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access-   E-UTRAN Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network-   FI Framing Info-   gNB Next Generation Node B (NR Node B)-   MAC Medium Access Control-   NACK Negative acknowledgment-   LTE Long Term Evolution-   NR Next Radio-   P-bit Polling bit-   PDU Protocol Data Unit-   R Reserved (field)-   RLC Radio Link Control-   RRC Radio Resource Control-   SDU Service Data Unit-   SI Segment information-   SN Sequence Number-   SO Segment Offset-   TB Transport Block-   TM Transparent Mode-   UE User Equipment-   UL UpLink-   UM Unacknowledged Mode-   TDD Time Division Duplex

Further Definitions and Embodiments

In this disclosure a receiving node and a transmitting node is referredto. In the embodiments in one example the transmitting node can be a UEand the receiving node can be a network node. In another example thetransmitting node can be a network node and the receiving node can be aUE. In yet another example the transmitting and receiving node can beinvolved in direct device to device communication, that is both can beconsidered UEs. Examples of device to device communication are proximityservice (ProSe), ProSe direct discovery, ProSe direct communication, V2X(where X can denote V, I or P e.g. V2V, V2I, V2P etc) etc.

A network node is a more general term and can correspond to any type ofradio network node or any network node, which communicates with a UEand/or with another network node. Examples of network nodes are NodeB,base station (BS), multi-standard radio (MSR) radio node such as MSR BS,eNodeB, gNodeB. MeNB, SeNB, network controller, radio network controller(RNC), base station controller (BSC), road side unit (RSU), relay, donornode controlling relay, base transceiver station (BTS), access point(AP), transmission points, transmission nodes, RRU, RRH, nodes indistributed antenna system (DAS), core network node (e.g. MSC, MME etc),O&M, OSS, SON, positioning node (e.g. E-SMLC) etc.

Another example of a node could be user equipment, this is anon-limiting term user equipment (UE) and it refers to any type ofwireless device communicating with a network node and/or with another UEin a cellular or mobile communication system. Examples of UE are targetdevice, device to device (D2D) UE, V2X UE, ProSe UE, machine type UE orUE capable of machine to machine (M2M) communication, PDA, iPAD, Tablet,mobile terminals, smart phone, laptop embedded equipped (LEE), laptopmounted equipment (LME), USB dongles etc.

The term radio access technology, or RAT, may refer to any RAT e.g.UTRA, E-UTRA, narrow band internet of things (NB-IoT), WiFi, Bluetooth,next generation RAT (NR), 4G, 5G, etc. Any of the first and the secondnodes may be capable of supporting a single or multiple RATs.

The term signal used herein can be any physical signal or physicalchannel Examples of downlink physical signals are reference signal suchas PSS, SSS, CRS, PRS, CSI-RS, DMRS, NRS, NPSS, NSSS, SS, MBSFN RS etc.Examples of uplink physical signals are reference signal such as SRS,DMRS etc. The term physical channel (e.g., in the context of channelreception) used herein is also called as ‘channel. The physical channelcarries higher layer information (e.g. RRC, logical control channeletc). Examples of downlink physical channels are PBCH, NPBCH, PDCCH,PDSCH, sPDSCH, MPDCCH, NPDCCH, NPDSCH, E-PDCCH etc. Examples of uplinkphysical channels are sPUCCH. sPUSCH, PUSCH, PUCCH, NPUSCH, PRACH,NPRACH etc.

The term time resource used herein may correspond to any type ofphysical resource or radio resource expressed in terms of length of timeand/or frequency. Signals are transmitted or received by a radio nodeover a time resource. Examples of time resources are: symbol, time slot,subframe, radio frame, TTI, interleaving time, etc.

Although the subject matter described herein may be implemented in anyappropriate type of system using any suitable components, theembodiments disclosed herein are described in relation to a wirelessnetwork, such as the example wireless network illustrated in FIG. 13.For simplicity, the wireless network of FIG. 13 only depicts networkQQ106, network nodes QQ160 and QQ160 b, and WDs QQ110, QQ110 b, andQQ110 c. In practice, a wireless network may further include anyadditional elements suitable to support communication between wirelessdevices or between a wireless device and another communication device,such as a landline telephone, a service provider, or any other networknode or end device. Of the illustrated components, network node QQ160and wireless device (WD) QQ110 are depicted with additional detail. Thewireless network may provide communication and other types of servicesto one or more wireless devices to facilitate the wireless devices'access to and/or use of the services provided by, or via, the wirelessnetwork.

The wireless network may comprise and/or interface with any type ofcommunication, telecommunication, data, cellular, and/or radio networkor other similar type of system. In some embodiments, the wirelessnetwork may be configured to operate according to specific standards orother types of predefined rules or procedures. Thus, particularembodiments of the wireless network may implement communicationstandards, such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM),Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), Long Term Evolution(LTE), and/or other suitable 2G, 3G, 4G, or 5G standards; wireless localarea network (WLAN) standards, such as the IEEE 802.11 standards; and/orany other appropriate wireless communication standard, such as theWorldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax), Bluetooth,Z-Wave and/or ZigBee standards.

Network QQ106 may comprise one or more backhaul networks, core networks,IP networks, public switched telephone networks (PSTNs), packet datanetworks, optical networks, wide-area networks (WANs), local areanetworks (LANs), wireless local area networks (WLANs), wired networks,wireless networks, metropolitan area networks, and other networks toenable communication between devices.

Network node QQ160 and WD QQ110 comprise various components described inmore detail below. These components work together in order to providenetwork node and/or wireless device functionality, such as providingwireless connections in a wireless network. In different embodiments,the wireless network may comprise any number of wired or wirelessnetworks, network nodes, base stations, controllers, wireless devices,relay stations, and/or any other components or systems that mayfacilitate or participate in the communication of data and/or signalswhether via wired or wireless connections.

As used herein, network node refers to equipment capable, configured,arranged and/or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with awireless device and/or with other network nodes or equipment in thewireless network to enable and/or provide wireless access to thewireless device and/or to perform other functions (e.g., administration)in the wireless network. Examples of network nodes include, but are notlimited to, access points (APs) (e.g., radio access points), basestations (BSs) (e.g., radio base stations, Node Bs, evolved Node Bs(eNBs) and NR NodeBs (gNBs)). Base stations may be categorized based onthe amount of coverage they provide (or, stated differently, theirtransmit power level) and may then also be referred to as femto basestations, pico base stations, micro base stations, or macro basestations. A base station may be a relay node or a relay donor nodecontrolling a relay. A network node may also include one or more (orall) parts of a distributed radio base station such as centralizeddigital units and/or remote radio units (RRUs), sometimes referred to asRemote Radio Heads (RRHs). Such remote radio units may or may not beintegrated with an antenna as an antenna integrated radio. Parts of adistributed radio base station may also be referred to as nodes in adistributed antenna system (DAS). Yet further examples of network nodesinclude multi-standard radio (MSR) equipment such as MSR BSs, networkcontrollers such as radio network controllers (RNCs) or base stationcontrollers (BSCs), base transceiver stations (BTSs), transmissionpoints, transmission nodes, multi-cell/multicast coordination entities(MCEs), core network nodes (e.g., MSCs, MMEs), O&M nodes, OSS nodes, SONnodes, positioning nodes (e.g., E-SMLCs), and/or MDTs. As anotherexample, a network node may be a virtual network node as described inmore detail below. More generally, however, network nodes may representany suitable device (or group of devices) capable, configured, arranged,and/or operable to enable and/or provide a wireless device with accessto the wireless network or to provide some service to a wireless devicethat has accessed the wireless network.

In FIG. 13, network node QQ160 includes processing circuitry QQ170,device readable medium QQ180, interface QQ190, auxiliary equipmentQQ184, power source QQ186, power circuitry QQ187, and antenna QQ162.Although network node QQ160 illustrated in the example wireless networkof FIG. 13 may represent a device that includes the illustratedcombination of hardware components, other embodiments may comprisenetwork nodes with different combinations of components. It is to beunderstood that a network node comprises any suitable combination ofhardware and/or software needed to perform the tasks, features,functions and methods disclosed herein. Moreover, while the componentsof network node QQ160 are depicted as single boxes located within alarger box, or nested within multiple boxes, in practice, a network nodemay comprise multiple different physical components that make up asingle illustrated component (e.g., device readable medium QQ180 maycomprise multiple separate hard drives as well as multiple RAM modules).

Similarly, network node QQ160 may be composed of multiple physicallyseparate components (e.g., a NodeB component and a RNC component, or aBTS component and a BSC component, etc.), which may each have their ownrespective components. In certain scenarios in which network node QQ160comprises multiple separate components (e.g., BTS and BSC components),one or more of the separate components may be shared among severalnetwork nodes. For example, a single RNC may control multiple NodeB's.In such a scenario, each unique NodeB and RNC pair, may in someinstances be considered a single separate network node. In someembodiments, network node QQ160 may be configured to support multipleradio access technologies (RATs). In such embodiments, some componentsmay be duplicated (e.g., separate device readable medium QQ180 for thedifferent RATs) and some components may be reused (e.g., the sameantenna QQ162 may be shared by the RATs). Network node QQ160 may alsoinclude multiple sets of the various illustrated components fordifferent wireless technologies integrated into network node QQ160, suchas, for example, GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, WiFi, or Bluetooth wirelesstechnologies. These wireless technologies may be integrated into thesame or different chip or set of chips and other components withinnetwork node QQ160.

Processing circuitry QQ170 is configured to perform any determining,calculating, or similar operations (e.g., certain obtaining operations)described herein as being provided by a network node. These operationsperformed by processing circuitry QQ170 may include processinginformation obtained by processing circuitry QQ170 by, for example,converting the obtained information into other information, comparingthe obtained information or converted information to information storedin the network node, and/or performing one or more operations based onthe obtained information or converted information, and as a result ofsaid processing making a determination.

Processing circuitry QQ170 may comprise a combination of one or more ofa microprocessor, controller, microcontroller, central processing unit,digital signal processor, application-specific integrated circuit, fieldprogrammable gate array, or any other suitable computing device,resource, or combination of hardware, software and/or encoded logicoperable to provide, either alone or in conjunction with other networknode QQ160 components, such as device readable medium QQ180, networknode QQ160 functionality. For example, processing circuitry QQ170 mayexecute instructions stored in device readable medium QQ180 or in memorywithin processing circuitry QQ170. Such functionality may includeproviding any of the various wireless features, functions, or benefitsdiscussed herein. In some embodiments, processing circuitry QQ170 mayinclude a system on a chip (SOC).

In some embodiments, processing circuitry QQ170 may include one or moreof radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry QQ172 and basebandprocessing circuitry QQ174. In some embodiments, radio frequency (RF)transceiver circuitry QQ172 and baseband processing circuitry QQ174 maybe on separate chips (or sets of chips), boards, or units, such as radiounits and digital units. In alternative embodiments, part or all of RFtransceiver circuitry QQ172 and baseband processing circuitry QQ174 maybe on the same chip or set of chips, boards, or units

In certain embodiments, some or all of the functionality describedherein as being provided by a network node, base station, eNB or othersuch network device may be performed by processing circuitry QQ170executing instructions stored on device readable medium QQ180 or memorywithin processing circuitry QQ170. In alternative embodiments, some orall of the functionality may be provided by processing circuitry QQ170without executing instructions stored on a separate or discrete devicereadable medium, such as in a hard-wired manner In any of thoseembodiments, whether executing instructions stored on a device readablestorage medium or not, processing circuitry QQ170 can be configured toperform the described functionality. The benefits provided by suchfunctionality are not limited to processing circuitry QQ170 alone or toother components of network node QQ160, but are enjoyed by network nodeQQ160 as a whole, and/or by end users and the wireless networkgenerally.

Device readable medium QQ180 may comprise any form of volatile ornon-volatile computer readable memory including, without limitation,persistent storage, solid-state memory, remotely mounted memory,magnetic media, optical media, random access memory (RAM), read-onlymemory (ROM), mass storage media (for example, a hard disk), removablestorage media (for example, a flash drive, a Compact Disk (CD) or aDigital Video Disk (DVD)), and/or any other volatile or non-volatile,non-transitory device readable and/or computer-executable memory devicesthat store information, data, and/or instructions that may be used byprocessing circuitry QQ170. Device readable medium QQ180 may store anysuitable instructions, data or information, including a computerprogram, software, an application including one or more of logic, rules,code, tables, etc. and/or other instructions capable of being executedby processing circuitry QQ170 and, utilized by network node QQ160.Device readable medium QQ180 may be used to store any calculations madeby processing circuitry QQ170 and/or any data received via interfaceQQ190. In some embodiments, processing circuitry QQ170 and devicereadable medium QQ180 may be considered to be integrated.

Interface QQ190 is used in the wired or wireless communication ofsignalling and/or data between network node QQ160, network QQ106, and/orWDs QQ110. As illustrated, interface QQ190 comprises port(s)/terminal(s)QQ194 to send and receive data, for example to and from network QQ106over a wired connection. Interface QQ190 also includes radio front endcircuitry QQ192 that may be coupled to, or in certain embodiments a partof, antenna QQ162. Radio front end circuitry QQ192 comprises filtersQQ198 and amplifiers QQ196. Radio front end circuitry QQ192 may beconnected to antenna QQ162 and processing circuitry QQ170. Radio frontend circuitry may be configured to condition signals communicatedbetween antenna QQ162 and processing circuitry QQ170. Radio front endcircuitry QQ192 may receive digital data that is to be sent out to othernetwork nodes or WDs via a wireless connection. Radio front endcircuitry QQ192 may convert the digital data into a radio signal havingthe appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters using a combination offilters QQ198 and/or amplifiers QQ196. The radio signal may then betransmitted via antenna QQ162. Similarly, when receiving data, antennaQQ162 may collect radio signals which are then converted into digitaldata by radio front end circuitry QQ192. The digital data may be passedto processing circuitry QQ170. In other embodiments, the interface maycomprise different components and/or different combinations ofcomponents.

In certain alternative embodiments, network node QQ160 may not includeseparate radio front end circuitry QQ192, instead, processing circuitryQQ170 may comprise radio front end circuitry and may be connected toantenna QQ162 without separate radio front end circuitry QQ192.Similarly, in some embodiments, all or some of RF transceiver circuitryQQ172 may be considered a part of interface QQ190. In still otherembodiments, interface QQ190 may include one or more ports or terminalsQQ194, radio front end circuitry QQ192, and RF transceiver circuitryQQ172, as part of a radio unit (not shown), and interface QQ190 maycommunicate with baseband processing circuitry QQ174, which is part of adigital unit (not shown).

Antenna QQ162 may include one or more antennas, or antenna arrays,configured to send and/or receive wireless signals. Antenna QQ162 may becoupled to radio front end circuitry QQ190 and may be any type ofantenna capable of transmitting and receiving data and/or signalswirelessly. In some embodiments, antenna QQ162 may comprise one or moreomni-directional, sector or panel antennas operable to transmit/receiveradio signals between, for example, 2 GHz and 66 GHz. Anomni-directional antenna may be used to transmit/receive radio signalsin any direction, a sector antenna may be used to transmit/receive radiosignals from devices within a particular area, and a panel antenna maybe a line of sight antenna used to transmit/receive radio signals in arelatively straight line. In some instances, the use of more than oneantenna may be referred to as MIMO. In certain embodiments, antennaQQ162 may be separate from network node QQ160 and may be connectable tonetwork node QQ160 through an interface or port.

Antenna QQ162, interface QQ190, and/or processing circuitry QQ170 may beconfigured to perform any receiving operations and/or certain obtainingoperations described herein as being performed by a network node. Anyinformation, data and/or signals may be received from a wireless device,another network node and/or any other network equipment. Similarly,antenna QQ162, interface QQ190, and/or processing circuitry QQ170 may beconfigured to perform any transmitting operations described herein asbeing performed by a network node. Any information, data and/or signalsmay be transmitted to a wireless device, another network node and/or anyother network equipment.

Power circuitry QQ187 may comprise, or be coupled to, power managementcircuitry and is configured to supply the components of network nodeQQ160 with power for performing the functionality described herein.Power circuitry QQ187 may receive power from power source QQ186. Powersource QQ186 and/or power circuitry QQ187 may be configured to providepower to the various components of network node QQ160 in a form suitablefor the respective components (e.g., at a voltage and current levelneeded for each respective component). Power source QQ186 may either beincluded in, or external to, power circuitry QQ187 and/or network nodeQQ160. For example, network node QQ160 may be connectable to an externalpower source (e.g., an electricity outlet) via an input circuitry orinterface such as an electrical cable, whereby the external power sourcesupplies power to power circuitry QQ187. As a further example, powersource QQ186 may comprise a source of power in the form of a battery orbattery pack which is connected to, or integrated in, power circuitryQQ187. The battery may provide backup power should the external powersource fail. Other types of power sources, such as photovoltaic devices,may also be used.

Alternative embodiments of network node QQ160 may include additionalcomponents beyond those shown in FIG. 13 that may be responsible forproviding certain aspects of the network node's functionality, includingany of the functionality described herein and/or any functionalitynecessary to support the subject matter described herein. For example,network node QQ160 may include user interface equipment to allow inputof information into network node QQ160 and to allow output ofinformation from network node QQ160. This may allow a user to performdiagnostic, maintenance, repair, and other administrative functions fornetwork node QQ160.

As used herein, wireless device (WD) refers to a device capable,configured, arranged and/or operable to communicate wirelessly withnetwork nodes and/or other wireless devices. Unless otherwise noted, theterm WD may be used interchangeably herein with user equipment (UE) andmobile equipment (ME). Communicating wirelessly may involve transmittingand/or receiving wireless signals using electromagnetic waves, radiowaves, infrared waves, and/or other types of signals suitable forconveying information through air. In some embodiments, a WD may beconfigured to transmit and/or receive information without direct humaninteraction. For instance, a WD may be designed to transmit informationto a network on a predetermined schedule, when triggered by an internalor external event, or in response to requests from the network. Examplesof a WD include, but are not limited to, a smart phone, a mobile phone,a cell phone, a voice over IP (VoIP) phone, a wireless local loop phone,a desktop computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a wirelesscameras, a gaming console or device, a music storage device, a playbackappliance, a wearable terminal device, a wireless endpoint, a mobilestation, a tablet, a laptop, a laptop-embedded equipment (LEE), alaptop-mounted equipment (LME), a smart device, a wirelesscustomer-premise equipment (CPE). a vehicle-mounted wireless terminaldevice, etc. A WD may support device-to-device (D2D) communication, forexample by implementing a 3GPP standard for sidelink communication,vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I),vehicle-to-everything (V2X) and may in this case be referred to as a D2Dcommunication device. As yet another specific example, in an Internet ofThings (IoT) scenario, a WD may represent a machine or other device thatperforms monitoring and/or measurements, and transmits the results ofsuch monitoring and/or measurements to another WD and/or a network node.The WD may in this case be a machine-to-machine (M2M) device, which mayin a 3GPP context be referred to as an MTC device. As one particularexample, the WD may be a UE implementing the 3GPP narrow band internetof things (NB-IoT) standard. Particular examples of such machines ordevices are sensors, metering devices such as power meters, industrialmachinery, or home or personal appliances (e.g. refrigerators,televisions, etc.) personal wearables (e.g., watches, fitness trackers,etc.). In other scenarios, a WD may represent a vehicle or otherequipment that is capable of monitoring and/or reporting on itsoperational status or other functions associated with its operation. AWD as described above may represent the endpoint of a wirelessconnection, in which case the device may be referred to as a wirelessterminal. Furthermore, a WD as described above may be mobile, in whichcase it may also be referred to as a mobile device or a mobile terminal.

As illustrated, wireless device QQ110 includes antenna QQ111, interfaceQQ114, processing circuitry QQ120, device readable medium QQ130, userinterface equipment QQ132, auxiliary equipment QQ134, power source QQ136and power circuitry QQ137. WD QQ110 may include multiple sets of one ormore of the illustrated components for different wireless technologiessupported by WD QQ110, such as, for example, GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, WiFi,WiMAX, or Bluetooth wireless technologies, just to mention a few. Thesewireless technologies may be integrated into the same or different chipsor set of chips as other components within WD QQ110.

Antenna QQ111 may include one or more antennas or antenna arrays,configured to send and/or receive wireless signals, and is connected tointerface QQ114. In certain alternative embodiments, antenna QQ111 maybe separate from WD QQ110 and be connectable to WD QQ110 through aninterface or port. Antenna QQ111, interface QQ114, and/or processingcircuitry QQ120 may be configured to perform any receiving ortransmitting operations described herein as being performed by a WD. Anyinformation, data and/or signals may be received from a network nodeand/or another WD. In some embodiments, radio front end circuitry and/orantenna QQ111 may be considered an interface.

As illustrated, interface QQ114 comprises radio front end circuitryQQ112 and antenna QQ111. Radio front end circuitry QQ112 comprise one ormore filters QQ118 and amplifiers QQ116. Radio front end circuitry QQ114is connected to antenna QQ111 and processing circuitry QQ120, and isconfigured to condition signals communicated between antenna QQ111 andprocessing circuitry QQ120. Radio front end circuitry QQ112 may becoupled to or a part of antenna QQ111. In some embodiments, WD QQ110 maynot include separate radio front end circuitry QQ112; rather, processingcircuitry QQ120 may comprise radio front end circuitry and may beconnected to antenna QQ111. Similarly, in some embodiments, some or allof RF transceiver circuitry QQ122 may be considered a part of interfaceQQ114. Radio front end circuitry QQ112 may receive digital data that isto be sent out to other network nodes or WDs via a wireless connection.Radio front end circuitry QQ112 may convert the digital data into aradio signal having the appropriate channel and bandwidth parametersusing a combination of filters QQ118 and/or amplifiers QQ116. The radiosignal may then be transmitted via antenna QQ111. Similarly, whenreceiving data, antenna QQ111 may collect radio signals which are thenconverted into digital data by radio front end circuitry QQ112. Thedigital data may be passed to processing circuitry QQ120. In otherembodiments, the interface may comprise different components and/ordifferent combinations of components.

Processing circuitry QQ120 may comprise a combination of one or more ofa microprocessor, controller, microcontroller, central processing unit,digital signal processor, application-specific integrated circuit, fieldprogrammable gate array, or any other suitable computing device,resource, or combination of hardware, software, and/or encoded logicoperable to provide, either alone or in conjunction with other WD QQ110components, such as device readable medium QQ130, WD QQ110functionality. Such functionality may include providing any of thevarious wireless features or benefits discussed herein. For example,processing circuitry QQ120 may execute instructions stored in devicereadable medium QQ130 or in memory within processing circuitry QQ120 toprovide the functionality disclosed herein.

As illustrated, processing circuitry QQ120 includes one or more of RFtransceiver circuitry QQ122, baseband processing circuitry QQ124, andapplication processing circuitry QQ126. In other embodiments, theprocessing circuitry may comprise different components and/or differentcombinations of components. In certain embodiments processing circuitryQQ120 of WD QQ110 may comprise a SOC. In some embodiments, RFtransceiver circuitry QQ122, baseband processing circuitry QQ124, andapplication processing circuitry QQ126 may be on separate chips or setsof chips. In alternative embodiments, part or all of baseband processingcircuitry QQ124 and application processing circuitry QQ126 may becombined into one chip or set of chips, and RF transceiver circuitryQQ122 may be on a separate chip or set of chips. In still alternativeembodiments, part or all of RF transceiver circuitry QQ122 and basebandprocessing circuitry QQ124 may be on the same chip or set of chips, andapplication processing circuitry QQ126 may be on a separate chip or setof chips. In yet other alternative embodiments, part or all of RFtransceiver circuitry QQ122, baseband processing circuitry QQ124, andapplication processing circuitry QQ126 may be combined in the same chipor set of chips. In some embodiments, RF transceiver circuitry QQ122 maybe a part of interface QQ114. RF transceiver circuitry QQ122 maycondition RF signals for processing circuitry QQ120.

In certain embodiments, some or all of the functionality describedherein as being performed by a WD may be provided by processingcircuitry QQ120 executing instructions stored on device readable mediumQQ130, which in certain embodiments may be a computer-readable storagemedium. In alternative embodiments, some or all of the functionality maybe provided by processing circuitry QQ120 without executing instructionsstored on a separate or discrete device readable storage medium, such asin a hard-wired manner In any of those particular embodiments, whetherexecuting instructions stored on a device readable storage medium ornot, processing circuitry QQ120 can be configured to perform thedescribed functionality. The benefits provided by such functionality arenot limited to processing circuitry QQ120 alone or to other componentsof WD QQ110, but are enjoyed by WD QQ110 as a whole, and/or by end usersand the wireless network generally.

Processing circuitry QQ120 may be configured to perform any determining,calculating, or similar operations (e.g., certain obtaining operations)described herein as being performed by a WD. These operations, asperformed by processing circuitry QQ120, may include processinginformation obtained by processing circuitry QQ120 by, for example,converting the obtained information into other information, comparingthe obtained information or converted information to information storedby WD QQ110, and/or performing one or more operations based on theobtained information or converted information, and as a result of saidprocessing making a determination.

Device readable medium QQ130 may be operable to store a computerprogram, software, an application including one or more of logic, rules,code, tables, etc. and/or other instructions capable of being executedby processing circuitry QQ120. Device readable medium QQ130 may includecomputer memory (e.g., Random Access Memory (RAM) or Read Only Memory(ROM)), mass storage media (e.g., a hard disk), removable storage media(e.g., a Compact Disk (CD) or a Digital Video Disk (DVD)), and/or anyother volatile or non-volatile, non-transitory device readable and/orcomputer executable memory devices that store information, data, and/orinstructions that may be used by processing circuitry QQ120. In someembodiments, processing circuitry QQ120 and device readable medium QQ130may be considered to be integrated.

User interface equipment QQ132 may provide components that allow for ahuman user to interact with WD QQ110. Such interaction may be of manyforms, such as visual, audial, tactile, etc. User interface equipmentQQ132 may be operable to produce output to the user and to allow theuser to provide input to WD QQ110. The type of interaction may varydepending on the type of user interface equipment QQ132 installed in WDQQ110. For example, if WD QQ110 is a smart phone, the interaction may bevia a touch screen; if WD QQ110 is a smart meter, the interaction may bethrough a screen that provides usage (e.g., the number of gallons used)or a speaker that provides an audible alert (e.g., if smoke isdetected). User interface equipment QQ132 may include input interfaces,devices and circuits, and output interfaces, devices and circuits. Userinterface equipment QQ132 is configured to allow input of informationinto WD QQ110, and is connected to processing circuitry QQ120 to allowprocessing circuitry QQ120 to process the input information. Userinterface equipment QQ132 may include, for example, a microphone, aproximity or other sensor, keys/buttons, a touch display, one or morecameras, a USB port, or other input circuitry. User interface equipmentQQ132 is also configured to allow output of information from WD QQ110,and to allow processing circuitry QQ120 to output information from WDQQ110. User interface equipment QQ132 may include, for example, aspeaker, a display, vibrating circuitry, a USB port, a headphoneinterface, or other output circuitry. Using one or more input and outputinterfaces, devices, and circuits, of user interface equipment QQ132, WDQQ110 may communicate with end users and/or the wireless network, andallow them to benefit from the functionality described herein.

Auxiliary equipment QQ134 is operable to provide more specificfunctionality which may not be generally performed by WDs. This maycomprise specialized sensors for doing measurements for variouspurposes, interfaces for additional types of communication such as wiredcommunications etc. The inclusion and type of components of auxiliaryequipment QQ134 may vary depending on the embodiment and/or scenario.

Power source QQ136 may, in some embodiments, be in the form of a batteryor battery pack. Other types of power sources, such as an external powersource (e.g., an electricity outlet), photovoltaic devices or powercells, may also be used. WD QQ110 may further comprise power circuitryQQ137 for delivering power from power source QQ136 to the various partsof WD QQ110 which need power from power source QQ136 to carry out anyfunctionality described or indicated herein. Power circuitry QQ137 mayin certain embodiments comprise power management circuitry. Powercircuitry QQ137 may additionally or alternatively be operable to receivepower from an external power source; in which case WD QQ110 may beconnectable to the external power source (such as an electricity outlet)via input circuitry or an interface such as an electrical power cable.Power circuitry QQ137 may also in certain embodiments be operable todeliver power from an external power source to power source QQ136. Thismay be, for example, for the charging of power source QQ136. Powercircuitry QQ137 may perform any formatting, converting, or othermodification to the power from power source QQ136 to make the powersuitable for the respective components of WD QQ110 to which power issupplied.

FIG. 14 illustrates one embodiment of a UE in accordance with variousaspects described herein. As used herein, a user equipment or UE may notnecessarily have a user in the sense of a human user who owns and/oroperates the relevant device. Instead, a UE may represent a device thatis intended for sale to, or operation by, a human user but which maynot, or which may not initially, be associated with a specific humanuser (e.g., a smart sprinkler controller). Alternatively, a UE mayrepresent a device that is not intended for sale to, or operation by, anend user but which may be associated with or operated for the benefit ofa user (e.g., a smart power meter). UE QQ2200 may be any UE identifiedby the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), including a NB-IoT UE,a machine type communication (MTC) UE, and/or an enhanced MTC (eMTC) UE.UE QQ200, as illustrated in FIG. 14, is one example of a WD configuredfor communication in accordance with one or more communication standardspromulgated by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), such as3GPP's GSM, UMTS, LTE, and/or 5G standards. As mentioned previously, theterm WD and UE may be used interchangeable. Accordingly, although FIG.14 is a UE, the components discussed herein are equally applicable to aWD, and vice-versa.

In FIG. 14, UE QQ200 includes processing circuitry QQ201 that isoperatively coupled to input/output interface QQ205, radio frequency(RF) interface QQ209, network connection interface QQ211, memory QQ215including random access memory (RAM) QQ217, read-only memory (ROM)QQ219, and storage medium QQ221 or the like, communication subsystemQQ231, power source QQ233, and/or any other component, or anycombination thereof. Storage medium QQ221 includes operating systemQQ223, application program QQ225, and data QQ227. In other embodiments,storage medium QQ221 may include other similar types of information.Certain UEs may utilize all of the components shown in FIG. 14, or onlya subset of the components. The level of integration between thecomponents may vary from one UE to another UE. Further, certain UEs maycontain multiple instances of a component, such as multiple processors,memories, transceivers, transmitters, receivers, etc.

In FIG. 14, processing circuitry QQ201 may be configured to processcomputer instructions and data. Processing circuitry QQ201 may beconfigured to implement any sequential state machine operative toexecute machine instructions stored as machine-readable computerprograms in the memory, such as one or more hardware-implemented statemachines (e.g., in discrete logic, FPGA, ASIC, etc.); programmable logictogether with appropriate firmware; one or more stored program,general-purpose processors, such as a microprocessor or Digital SignalProcessor (DSP), together with appropriate software; or any combinationof the above. For example, the processing circuitry QQ201 may includetwo central processing units (CPUs). Data may be information in a formsuitable for use by a computer.

In the depicted embodiment, input/output interface QQ205 may beconfigured to provide a communication interface to an input device,output device, or input and output device. UE QQ200 may be configured touse an output device via input/output interface QQ205. An output devicemay use the same type of interface port as an input device. For example,a USB port may be used to provide input to and output from UE QQ200. Theoutput device may be a speaker, a sound card, a video card, a display, amonitor, a printer, an actuator, an emitter, a smartcard, another outputdevice, or any combination thereof. UE QQ200 may be configured to use aninput device via input/output interface QQ205 to allow a user to captureinformation into UE QQ200. The input device may include atouch-sensitive or presence-sensitive display, a camera (e.g., a digitalcamera, a digital video camera, a web camera, etc.), a microphone, asensor, a mouse, a trackball, a directional pad, a trackpad, a scrollwheel, a smartcard, and the like. The presence-sensitive display mayinclude a capacitive or resistive touch sensor to sense input from auser. A sensor may be, for instance, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, atilt sensor, a force sensor, a magnetometer, an optical sensor, aproximity sensor, another like sensor, or any combination thereof. Forexample, the input device may be an accelerometer, a magnetometer, adigital camera, a microphone, and an optical sensor.

In FIG. 14, RF interface QQ209 may be configured to provide acommunication interface to RF components such as a transmitter, areceiver, and an antenna. Network connection interface QQ211 may beconfigured to provide a communication interface to network QQ243 a.Network QQ243 a may encompass wired and/or wireless networks such as alocal-area network (LAN), a wide-area network (WAN), a computer network,a wireless network, a telecommunications network, another like networkor any combination thereof. For example, network QQ243 a may comprise aWi-Fi network. Network connection interface QQ211 may be configured toinclude a receiver and a transmitter interface used to communicate withone or more other devices over a communication network according to oneor more communication protocols, such as Ethernet, TCP/IP, SONET, ATM,or the like. Network connection interface QQ211 may implement receiverand transmitter functionality appropriate to the communication networklinks (e.g., optical, electrical, and the like). The transmitter andreceiver functions may share circuit components, software or firmware,or alternatively may be implemented separately.

RAM QQ217 may be configured to interface via bus QQ202 to processingcircuitry QQ201 to provide storage or caching of data or computerinstructions during the execution of software programs such as theoperating system, application programs, and device drivers. ROM QQ219may be configured to provide computer instructions or data to processingcircuitry QQ201. For example, ROM QQ219 may be configured to storeinvariant low-level system code or data for basic system functions suchas basic input and output (I/O), startup, or reception of keystrokesfrom a keyboard that are stored in a non-volatile memory. Storage mediumQQ221 may be configured to include memory such as RAM, ROM, programmableread-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM),electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), magneticdisks, optical disks, floppy disks, hard disks, removable cartridges, orflash drives. In one example, storage medium QQ221 may be configured toinclude operating system QQ223, application program QQ225 such as a webbrowser application, a widget or gadget engine or another application,and data file QQ227. Storage medium QQ221 may store, for use by UEQQ200, any of a variety of various operating systems or combinations ofoperating systems.

Storage medium QQ221 may be configured to include a number of physicaldrive units, such as redundant array of independent disks (RAID), floppydisk drive, flash memory, USB flash drive, external hard disk drive,thumb drive, pen drive, key drive, high-density digital versatile disc(HD-DVD) optical disc drive, internal hard disk drive, Blu-Ray opticaldisc drive, holographic digital data storage (HDDS) optical disc drive,external mini-dual in-line memory module (DIMM), synchronous dynamicrandom access memory (SDRAM), external micro-DIMM SDRAM, smartcardmemory such as a subscriber identity module or a removable user identity(SIM/RUIM) module, other memory, or any combination thereof. Storagemedium QQ221 may allow UE QQ200 to access computer-executableinstructions, application programs or the like, stored on transitory ornon-transitory memory media, to off-load data, or to upload data. Anarticle of manufacture, such as one utilizing a communication system maybe tangibly embodied in storage medium QQ221, which may comprise adevice readable medium.

In FIG. 14, processing circuitry QQ201 may be configured to communicatewith network QQ243 b using communication subsystem QQ231. Network QQ243a and network QQ243 b may be the same network or networks or differentnetwork or networks. Communication subsystem QQ231 may be configured toinclude one or more transceivers used to communicate with network QQ243b. For example, communication subsystem QQ231 may be configured toinclude one or more transceivers used to communicate with one or moreremote transceivers of another device capable of wireless communicationsuch as another WD, UE, or base station of a radio access network (RAN)according to one or more communication protocols, such as IEEE 802.QQ2,CDMA, WCDMA, GSM, LTE, UTRAN, WiMax, or the like. Each transceiver mayinclude transmitter QQ233 and/or receiver QQ235 to implement transmitteror receiver functionality, respectively, appropriate to the RAN links(e.g., frequency allocations and the like). Further, transmitter QQ233and receiver QQ235 of each transceiver may share circuit components,software or firmware, or alternatively may be implemented separately.

In the illustrated embodiment, the communication functions ofcommunication subsystem QQ231 may include data communication, voicecommunication, multimedia communication, short-range communications suchas Bluetooth, near-field communication, location-based communicationsuch as the use of the global positioning system (GPS) to determine alocation, another like communication function, or any combinationthereof. For example, communication subsystem QQ231 may include cellularcommunication, Wi-Fi communication, Bluetooth communication, and GPScommunication. Network QQ243 b may encompass wired and/or wirelessnetworks such as a local-area network (LAN), a wide-area network (WAN),a computer network, a wireless network, a telecommunications network,another like network or any combination thereof. For example, networkQQ243 b may be a cellular network, a Wi-Fi network, and/or a near-fieldnetwork. Power source QQ213 may be configured to provide alternatingcurrent (AC) or direct current (DC) power to components of UE QQ200.

The features, benefits and/or functions described herein may beimplemented in one of the components of UE QQ200 or partitioned acrossmultiple components of UE QQ200. Further, the features, benefits, and/orfunctions described herein may be implemented in any combination ofhardware, software or firmware. In one example, communication subsystemQQ231 may be configured to include any of the components describedherein. Further, processing circuitry QQ201 may be configured tocommunicate with any of such components over bus QQ202. In anotherexample, any of such components may be represented by programinstructions stored in memory that when executed by processing circuitryQQ201 perform the corresponding functions described herein. In anotherexample, the functionality of any of such components may be partitionedbetween processing circuitry QQ201 and communication subsystem QQ231. Inanother example, the non-computationally intensive functions of any ofsuch components may be implemented in software or firmware and thecomputationally intensive functions may be implemented in hardware.

FIG. 15 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a virtualizationenvironment QQ300 in which functions implemented by some embodiments maybe virtualized. In the present context, virtualizing means creatingvirtual versions of apparatuses or devices which may includevirtualizing hardware platforms, storage devices and networkingresources. As used herein, virtualization can be applied to a node(e.g., a virtualized base station or a virtualized radio access node) orto a device (e.g., a UE, a wireless device or any other type ofcommunication device) or components thereof and relates to animplementation in which at least a portion of the functionality isimplemented as one or more virtual components (e.g., via one or moreapplications, components, functions, virtual machines or containersexecuting on one or more physical processing nodes in one or morenetworks).

In some embodiments, some or all of the functions described herein maybe implemented as virtual components executed by one or more virtualmachines implemented in one or more virtual environments QQ300 hosted byone or more of hardware nodes QQ330. Further, in embodiments in whichthe virtual node is not a radio access node or does not require radioconnectivity (e.g., a core network node), then the network node may beentirely virtualized.

The functions may be implemented by one or more applications QQ320(which may alternatively be called software instances, virtualappliances, network functions, virtual nodes, virtual network functions,etc.) operative to implement some of the features, functions, and/orbenefits of some of the embodiments disclosed herein. Applications QQ320are run in virtualization environment QQ300 which provides hardwareQQ330 comprising processing circuitry QQ360 and memory QQ390. MemoryQQ390 contains instructions QQ395 executable by processing circuitryQQ360 whereby application QQ320 is operative to provide one or more ofthe features, benefits, and/or functions disclosed herein.

Virtualization environment QQ300, comprises general-purpose orspecial-purpose network hardware devices QQ330 comprising a set of oneor more processors or processing circuitry QQ360, which may becommercial off-the-shelf (COTS) processors, dedicated ApplicationSpecific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), or any other type of processingcircuitry including digital or analog hardware components or specialpurpose processors. Each hardware device may comprise memory QQ390-1which may be non-persistent memory for temporarily storing instructionsQQ395 or software executed by processing circuitry QQ360. Each hardwaredevice may comprise one or more network interface controllers (NICs)QQ370, also known as network interface cards, which include physicalnetwork interface QQ380. Each hardware device may also includenon-transitory, persistent, machine-readable storage media QQ390-2having stored therein software QQ395 and/or instructions executable byprocessing circuitry QQ360. Software QQ395 may include any type ofsoftware including software for instantiating one or more virtualizationlayers QQ350 (also referred to as hypervisors), software to executevirtual machines QQ340 as well as software allowing it to executefunctions, features and/or benefits described in relation with someembodiments described herein.

Virtual machines QQ340, comprise virtual processing, virtual memory,virtual networking or interface and virtual storage, and may be run by acorresponding virtualization layer QQ350 or hypervisor. Differentembodiments of the instance of virtual appliance QQ320 may beimplemented on one or more of virtual machines QQ340, and theimplementations may be made in different ways.

During operation, processing circuitry QQ360 executes software QQ395 toinstantiate the hypervisor or virtualization layer QQ350, which maysometimes be referred to as a virtual machine monitor (VMM).Virtualization layer QQ350 may present a virtual operating platform thatappears like networking hardware to virtual machine QQ340.

As shown in FIG. 15, hardware QQ330 may be a standalone network nodewith generic or specific components. Hardware QQ330 may comprise antennaQQ3225 and may implement some functions via virtualization.Alternatively, hardware QQ330 may be part of a larger cluster ofhardware (e.g. such as in a data center or customer premise equipment(CPE)) where many hardware nodes work together and are managed viamanagement and orchestration (MANO) QQ3100, which, among others,oversees lifecycle management of applications QQ320.

Virtualization of the hardware is in some contexts referred to asnetwork function virtualization (NFV). NFV may be used to consolidatemany network equipment types onto industry standard high volume serverhardware, physical switches, and physical storage, which can be locatedin data centers, and customer premise equipment.

In the context of NFV, virtual machine QQ340 may be a softwareimplementation of a physical machine that runs programs as if they wereexecuting on a physical, non-virtualized machine. Each of virtualmachines QQ340, and that part of hardware QQ330 that executes thatvirtual machine, be it hardware dedicated to that virtual machine and/orhardware shared by that virtual machine with others of the virtualmachines QQ340, forms a separate virtual network elements (VNE).

Still in the context of NFV, Virtual Network Function (VNF) isresponsible for handling specific network functions that run in one ormore virtual machines QQ340 on top of hardware networking infrastructureQQ330 and corresponds to application QQ320 in FIG. 15.

In some embodiments, one or more radio units QQ3200 that each includeone or more transmitters QQ3220 and one or more receivers QQ3210 may becoupled to one or more antennas QQ3225. Radio units QQ3200 maycommunicate directly with hardware nodes QQ330 via one or moreappropriate network interfaces and may be used in combination with thevirtual components to provide a virtual node with radio capabilities,such as a radio access node or a base station.

In some embodiments, some signalling can be effected with the use ofcontrol system QQ3230 which may alternatively be used for communicationbetween the hardware nodes QQ330 and radio units QQ3200.

With reference to FIG. 16, in accordance with an embodiment, acommunication system includes telecommunication network QQ410, such as a3GPP-type cellular network, which comprises access network QQ411, suchas a radio access network, and core network QQ414. Access network QQ411comprises a plurality of base stations QQ412 a, QQ412 b, QQ412 c, suchas NBs, eNBs, gNBs or other types of wireless access points, eachdefining a corresponding coverage area QQ413 a, QQ413 b, QQ413 c. Eachbase station QQ412 a, QQ412 b, QQ412 c is connectable to core networkQQ414 over a wired or wireless connection QQ415. A first UE QQ491located in coverage area QQ413 c is configured to wirelessly connect to,or be paged by, the corresponding base station QQ412 c. A second UEQQ492 in coverage area QQ413 a is wirelessly connectable to thecorresponding base station QQ412 a. While a plurality of UEs QQ491,QQ492 are illustrated in this example, the disclosed embodiments areequally applicable to a situation where a sole UE is in the coveragearea or where a sole UE is connecting to the corresponding base stationQQ412.

Telecommunication network QQ410 is itself connected to host computerQQ430, which may be embodied in the hardware and/or software of astandalone server, a cloud-implemented server, a distributed server oras processing resources in a server farm. Host computer QQ430 may beunder the ownership or control of a service provider, or may be operatedby the service provider or on behalf of the service provider.Connections QQ421 and QQ422 between telecommunication network QQ410 andhost computer QQ430 may extend directly from core network QQ414 to hostcomputer QQ430 or may go via an optional intermediate network QQ420.Intermediate network QQ420 may be one of, or a combination of more thanone of, a public, private or hosted network; intermediate network QQ420,if any, may be a backbone network or the Internet; in particular,intermediate network QQ420 may comprise two or more sub-networks (notshown).

The communication system of FIG. 16 as a whole enables connectivitybetween the connected UEs QQ491, QQ492 and host computer QQ430. Theconnectivity may be described as an over-the-top (OTT) connection QQ450.Host computer QQ430 and the connected UEs QQ491, QQ492 are configured tocommunicate data and/or signaling via OTT connection QQ450, using accessnetwork QQ411, core network QQ414, any intermediate network QQ420 andpossible further infrastructure (not shown) as intermediaries. OTTconnection QQ450 may be transparent in the sense that the participatingcommunication devices through which OTT connection QQ450 passes areunaware of routing of uplink and downlink communications. For example,base station QQ412 may not or need not be informed about the pastrouting of an incoming downlink communication with data originating fromhost computer QQ430 to be forwarded (e.g., handed over) to a connectedUE QQ491. Similarly, base station QQ412 need not be aware of the futurerouting of an outgoing uplink communication originating from the UEQQ491 towards the host computer QQ430.

Example implementations, in accordance with an embodiment, of the UE,base station and host computer discussed in the preceding paragraphswill now be described with reference to FIG. 17. In communication systemQQ500, host computer QQ510 comprises hardware QQ515 includingcommunication interface QQ516 configured to set up and maintain a wiredor wireless connection with an interface of a different communicationdevice of communication system QQ500. Host computer QQ510 furthercomprises processing circuitry QQ518, which may have storage and/orprocessing capabilities. In particular, processing circuitry QQ518 maycomprise one or more programmable processors, application-specificintegrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays or combinations ofthese (not shown) adapted to execute instructions. Host computer QQ510further comprises software QQ511, which is stored in or accessible byhost computer QQ510 and executable by processing circuitry QQ518.Software QQ511 includes host application QQ512. Host application QQ512may be operable to provide a service to a remote user, such as UE QQ530connecting via OTT connection QQ550 terminating at UE QQ530 and hostcomputer QQ510. In providing the service to the remote user, hostapplication QQ512 may provide user data which is transmitted using OTTconnection QQ550.

Communication system QQ500 further includes base station QQ520 providedin a telecommunication system and comprising hardware QQ525 enabling itto communicate with host computer QQ510 and with UE QQ530. HardwareQQ525 may include communication interface QQ526 for setting up andmaintaining a wired or wireless connection with an interface of adifferent communication device of communication system QQ500, as well asradio interface QQ527 for setting up and maintaining at least wirelessconnection QQ570 with UE QQ530 located in a coverage area (not shown inFIG. 17) served by base station QQ520. Communication interface QQ526 maybe configured to facilitate connection QQ560 to host computer QQ510.Connection QQ560 may be direct or it may pass through a core network(not shown in FIG. 17) of the telecommunication system and/or throughone or more intermediate networks outside the telecommunication system.In the embodiment shown, hardware QQ525 of base station QQ520 furtherincludes processing circuitry QQ528, which may comprise one or moreprogrammable processors, application-specific integrated circuits, fieldprogrammable gate arrays or combinations of these (not shown) adapted toexecute instructions. Base station QQ520 further has software QQ521stored internally or accessible via an external connection.

Communication system QQ500 further includes UE QQ530 already referredto. Its hardware QQ535 may include radio interface QQ537 configured toset up and maintain wireless connection QQ570 with a base stationserving a coverage area in which UE QQ530 is currently located. HardwareQQ535 of UE QQ530 further includes processing circuitry QQ538, which maycomprise one or more programmable processors, application-specificintegrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays or combinations ofthese (not shown) adapted to execute instructions. UE QQ530 furthercomprises software QQ531, which is stored in or accessible by UE QQ530and executable by processing circuitry QQ538. Software QQ531 includesclient application QQ532. Client application QQ532 may be operable toprovide a service to a human or non-human user via UE QQ530, with thesupport of host computer QQ510. In host computer QQ510, an executinghost application QQ512 may communicate with the executing clientapplication QQ532 via OTT connection QQ550 terminating at UE QQ530 andhost computer QQ510. In providing the service to the user, clientapplication QQ532 may receive request data from host application QQ512and provide user data in response to the request data. OTT connectionQQ550 may transfer both the request data and the user data. Clientapplication QQ532 may interact with the user to generate the user datathat it provides.

It is noted that host computer QQ510, base station QQ520 and UE QQ530illustrated in FIG. 17 may be similar or identical to host computerQQ430, one of base stations QQ412 a, QQ412 b, QQ412 c and one of UEsQQ491, QQ492 of FIG. 16, respectively. This is to say, the innerworkings of these entities may be as shown in FIG. 17 and independently,the surrounding network topology may be that of FIG. 16.

In FIG. 17, OTT connection QQ550 has been drawn abstractly to illustratethe communication between host computer QQ510 and UE QQ530 via basestation QQ520, without explicit reference to any intermediary devicesand the precise routing of messages via these devices. Networkinfrastructure may determine the routing, which it may be configured tohide from UE QQ530 or from the service provider operating host computerQQ510, or both. While OTT connection QQ550 is active, the networkinfrastructure may further take decisions by which it dynamicallychanges the routing (e.g., on the basis of load balancing considerationor reconfiguration of the network).

A measurement procedure may be provided for the purpose of monitoringdata rate, latency and other factors on which the one or moreembodiments improve. There may further be an optional networkfunctionality for reconfiguring OTT connection QQ550 between hostcomputer QQ510 and UE QQ530, in response to variations in themeasurement results. The measurement procedure and/or the networkfunctionality for reconfiguring OTT connection QQ550 may be implementedin software QQ511 and hardware QQ515 of host computer QQ510 or insoftware QQ531 and hardware QQ535 of UE QQ530, or both. In embodiments,sensors (not shown) may be deployed in or in association withcommunication devices through which OTT connection QQ550 passes; thesensors may participate in the measurement procedure by supplying valuesof the monitored quantities exemplified above, or supplying values ofother physical quantities from which software QQ511, QQ531 may computeor estimate the monitored quantities. The reconfiguring of OTTconnection QQ550 may include message format, retransmission settings,preferred routing etc.; the reconfiguring need not affect base stationQQ520, and it may be unknown or imperceptible to base station QQ520.Such procedures and functionalities may be known and practiced in theart. In certain embodiments, measurements may involve proprietary UEsignaling facilitating host computer QQ510's measurements of throughput,propagation times, latency and the like. The measurements may beimplemented in that software QQ511 and QQ531 causes messages to betransmitted, in particular empty or ‘dummy’ messages, using OTTconnection QQ550 while it monitors propagation times, errors etc.

The term unit may have conventional meaning in the field of electronics,electrical devices and/or electronic devices and may include, forexample, electrical and/or electronic circuitry, devices, modules,processors, memories, logic solid state and/or discrete devices,computer programs or instructions for carrying out respective tasks,procedures, computations, outputs, and/or displaying functions, and soon, as such as those that are described herein.

REFERENCES

-   1. 3GPP TS 38.300-   2. 3GPP TS 38.322

1. A method of operating a receiver in a communications network,comprising: receiving a protocol data unit, PDU, from a transmitter,wherein the PDU carries at least part of a service data unit, SDU;determining that first and second non-adjacent segments of the SDU werenot successfully received at the receiver; and requesting retransmissionby the transmitter of a portion of the SDU from a beginning of the firstnon-adjacent segment to an end of the second non-adjacent segment. 2.The method of claim 1, wherein the portion of the SDU from the beginningof the first non-adjacent segment to the end of the second non-adjacentsegment includes a third segment that was successfully received at thereceiver.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein requesting retransmission ofthe portion of the SDU from the beginning of the first non-adjacentsegment to the end of the second non-adjacent segment comprises:generating a radio link control, RLC, status report, comprising anegative acknowledgement, NACK, field including a segment offset startindicator corresponding to a segment offset start of the firstnon-adjacent segment and a segment offset end indicator corresponding toa segment offset end of the second non-adjacent segment; andtransmitting the RLC status report to the transmitter.
 4. The method ofclaim 3, wherein the RLC status report requests retransmission of anentire portion of the SDU from the segment offset start indicator to thesegment offset end indicator.
 5. The method of claim 1, whereinrequesting retransmission of the portion of the SDU from the beginningof the first non-adjacent segment to the end of the second non-adjacentsegment comprises: generating a radio link control, RLC, status report,comprising a negative acknowledgement, NACK, field including a NACKrange that spans the first and second non-adjacent segments of the SDUwere not successfully received at the receiver; and transmitting the RLCstatus report to the transmitter.
 6. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: determining whether a condition is met; wherein requestingretransmission by the transmitter of the entire portion of the SDU fromthe beginning of the first non-adjacent segment to the end of the secondnon-adjacent segment is performed in response to determining that thecondition is met.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein determining whetherthe condition is met comprises: determining that an overhead of a NACKtuple including a NACK sequence number, NACK_SN, a segment offset start,SOstart, corresponding to the second non-adjacent segment of the SDU,and a segment offset end, SOend, corresponding to the secondnon-adjacent segment of the SDU, is larger than an intervening portionof the SDU between the first non-adjacent segment of the SDU and thesecond non-adjacent segment of the SDU.
 8. The method of claim 6,wherein determining whether the condition is met comprises: determiningthat a status report format of a status report used to requestretransmission is limited by a transport block size.
 9. The method ofclaim 6, wherein determining whether the condition is met comprises:determining that a size of a third segment between the first and secondnon-adjacent segments of the SDU that was successfully received is lessthan a threshold size.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein the thresholdis determined by comparing an SDU segment overhead with an overheadassociated with a radio link control, RLC, status report used to requestthe retransmission.
 11. The method of claim 9, wherein the threshold issignaled to the receiver by the transmitter.
 12. The method of claim 6,further comprising: determining that a size of a plurality of thirdsegments between the first and second non-adjacent segments of the SDUthat were successfully received is less than a threshold size.
 13. Themethod of claim 12, wherein the threshold size is determined based on adistance between a first missing byte and a last missing byte in theSDU.
 14. A user equipment, UE, adapted to perform according to claim 1.15. A user equipment, UE, comprising: a transceiver configured tocommunicate with a first network node via a radio access network; and aprocessor coupled to the transceiver and configured to performoperations comprising: receiving a protocol data unit, PDU, from atransmitter, wherein the PDU carries at least part of a service dataunit, SDU; determining that first and second non-adjacent segments ofthe SDU were not successfully received at the receiver; and requestingretransmission by the transmitter of a portion of the SDU from abeginning of the first non-adjacent segment to an end of the secondnon-adjacent segment.
 16. The UE of claim 15, wherein the processor isadapted to operations according to claim
 2. 17. A user equipment, UE,including respective modules adapted to perform according to claim 1.18. A network node adapted to perform according to claim
 1. 19. Anetwork node comprising: a network interface configured to communicatewith a UE; and a processor coupled to the network interface andconfigured to perform operations comprising: receiving a protocol dataunit, PDU, from a transmitter, wherein the PDU carries at least part ofa service data unit, SDU; determining that first and second non-adjacentsegments of the SDU were not successfully received at the receiver; andrequesting retransmission by the transmitter of a portion of the SDUfrom a beginning of the first non-adjacent segment to an end of thesecond non-adjacent segment.
 20. The network node of claim 19, whereinthe processor is to perform operations according to claim
 2. 21. Anetwork node including respective modules adapted to perform accordingto claim
 1. 22. A method of operating a receiver in a communicationsnetwork, comprising: receiving a protocol data unit, PDU, from atransmitter, wherein the PDU carries at least part of a service dataunit, SDU; determining that first and second non-adjacent segments ofthe SDU were not successfully received at the receiver; generating aradio link control, RLC, status report, comprising a negativeacknowledgement, NACK, field with respect to a set of segments includingthe first and second non-adjacent segments and a segment in-between thefirst and second non-adjacent segments; and transmitting the RLC statusreport to the transmitter.